February 2024
February 2024
From the President
Dear Parents,
As you likely know, January visited our campus with a decent amount of snow, a fairly serious ice storm, and very cold temperatures.
With typical ingenuity, a hard-working group of sophomores built a legitimate igloo on the Quad—roomy enough for college presidents to visit and warm enough for overnight stays.
More fun is on the horizon, with our annual President’s Ball on February 19 and Spring Break starting on March 2. We’ll need to keep our spirits up. With apologies to T.S. Eliot, who called April “the cruelest month,” we find February to be our biggest challenge.
Our students need your prayers now more than ever, as do our faculty, staff, and administrators. May God bless you and bless Wheaton College in February 2024, and always.
In Christ’s service,
Philip Ryken
President
Collegiate Day of Prayer
The Collegiate Day of Prayer is a day set apart to pray for college campuses across the nation and our Wheaton parents are invited to join a Zoom call to pray with fellow parents.
Zoom Parent Prayer Calls are scheduled for Thursday, February 29 at 7 p.m. in all U.S. time zones, with one exception, a 7 a.m. EST option was recently added. Each prayer call will be led by a current parent and parents will be invited to pray silently or out loud.
Registration is required and will close on Tuesday, February 27 at midnight. When registering, please select the time zone that works best with your schedule, regardless of which time zone you reside in. Login information will be sent the day before the calls.
If you are not available to join a call, we still encourage you to set aside time to pray on February 29. Our Alumni and Parent Prayer Card offers 31 ways to pray for Wheaton and will help guide your prayers.
Thank you for praying!
Center for Vocation and Career (CVC) Equipping Opportunities
The CVC is committed to equipping your student with tools and opportunities to discover, prepare for, and launch into their next steps help build the church and benefit society worldwide. Below are just a few ways your student can engage with the CVC this spring:
- Senior Series: a five-part series designed to equip students who are graduating:
- Nothing Bundt Budgeting – February 13
- Career Catalyst professional readiness event – March 13
- Recruitment Roundtables – March 14
- Life After Wheaton: lessons from the class of 2023 – April 9
- Senior Celebration! - April 19
- WAY5 – What Are Your 5? An event exclusively for our first-year students to take the CliftonStrengths assessment, discover their top five areas of God-given talent, and connect with other students to learn how to lean into, and develop, their strengths.
- CVC Internship Scholarships - Applications are now open to apply for scholarship funds to supplement an unpaid or underpaid internship experience. Internships are critically important opportunities for students, and we hope every student participates in at least one internship during their time at Wheaton. If your student isn’t sure if they can afford to accept an unpaid or underpaid internship, encourage them to apply for the CVC internship scholarship today!
Our office is open for drop-ins every Monday – Friday from 9:00am – 4:30pm, and we would love to connect with your student. We also have online tools for internships, including a historical internship database and our "Internship 101” online resource.
Spring Break and Housing Selection Information
Spring Break Housing
Campus housing closes for spring break on Saturday, March 2, at 10 a.m. and reopens on Saturday, March 9, at 3 p.m. The meal plan ends with dinner on Friday, March 1 and resumes with dinner on Saturday, March 9. The College provides housing for students during spring break for the following reasons: athletics, international students and those who live internationally, campus employment and required academic commitments.
Our housing calendar provides additional dates and times when housing closes in May and re-opens in August.
Housing Selection Process
Students will begin selecting their 2024-2025 housing locations after spring break. Housing selection is based on one’s year in school, starting with seniors and moving to freshmen. Within each class, a random lottery number is given and those with the lowest numbers select first. Since a core pillar of the Wheaton experience is our residential philosophy, students are expected to live in campus owned housing throughout their educational experience. If your student requires an ADA housing accommodation, please have them email LAS@wheaton.edu to start the process. Your student has received emails about our accommodation process. Since we are a residential campus, the only students allowed to live off campus for the ’24-’25 school year are those who qualify for automatic off-campus permission, including fifth-year students, married students, HNGR students, students who live with their parent(s) or in a home owned by their parents (a parent renting an apartment only qualifies if the parent lives there full time), third and fourth-year Engineering and Nursing students enrolled in the 3/2 program, and part-time students enrolled in 11 hours or less during the fall and spring semesters. Students who sign a lease and are denied off-campus permission will be required to remain in campus housing and are still responsible for their off-campus lease. Housing questions can be sent to housing.services@wheaton.edu.
The Arts at Wheaton – Spring Performances
This spring offers exciting performance opportunities for students in our music ensembles, most notably two spring break tours March 1-9. We celebrate the two years that Dr. Blackstone has served as director of the Men’s Glee Club and Women’s Chorale with a tour to Minnesota and Iowa, while our Concert Choir, along with a student and alumni chamber orchestra, will tour The Messiah Project, a semi-staged production of Handel’s great choral work along the East Coast, making stops from Philadelphia to Washington D.C. Both groups aim to reach audiences Wheaton alumni, parents, and friends, local congregations, and music lovers with programs of sacred choral music illuminating the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Please get in touch with conservatory.of.music@wheaton.edu for more information.
Other spring 2024 performance highlights on campus include:
- The Artist Series presentsGRAMMY-nominated faculty composer Dr. Shawn E. Okpebholo’s powerful work, Songs in Flight with an internationally acclaimed cast of artists, including vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddons, soprano Karen Slack, countertenor Reginald Mobley, baritone Markel Reed, and pianist Paul Sanchez.
- The Artist Series presentsThe Messiah Project, featuring the Concert Choir, along with guest soloists and a string orchestra, conducted by John William Trotter. This will be an engaging, semi-staged rendition of Handel’s iconic choral masterpiece Saturday March 23.
- Arena Theatre will present two new shows,The Imaginary Invalid by Moliere (adapted by Oded Gross), and The Psalms, adapted for Arena Theater by the company.
- The Chicago Symphony Orchestra will return to campus for two performances: Mahler 4, Conducted by Susanna Mälkki on March 22, and Chopin & Tchaikovsky, conducted by Tugan Sokhiev on April 19.
We hope you will be able to join us for some of this semester’s incredible events. Visit tickets.wheaton.edu for more information. For CSO tickets, visit this site.
Commencement Weekend: May 4-5
Congratulations to the parents of soon-to-be-alumni from the class of 2024! The full Commencement Weekend schedule of events and related Frequently Asked Questions will soon be posted on our website. We are looking forward to welcoming you to campus for this meaningful weekend in your family's life.
Employment & Paid Internships:
Honeyrock Center For Leadership Development
Is your son or daughter looking for a paid summer internship or job?
Would your student benefit from experiential, hands-on leadership development?
HoneyRock has several avenues for employment every year.
Summer Staff at HoneyRock
May 25, 2024 – August 12, 2024*
Every summer, HoneyRock looks to hire an expansive team of college-aged summer staff to gain experience in leadership and spiritual mentorship. Pursuing employment or a paid internship at HoneyRock affords your student(s) the time, space, and hands-on experiences to expand their leadership capacity and hard skills that are valuable in any workplace through immersive life-on-life ministry with youth, young adults, and their peers.
HoneyRock is looking to hire cabin leaders for our elementary and junior high summer camp programs. These roles are ideal for developing collaborative work environments, coaching and mentorship, and leadership. Encourage your student to apply and start considering their opportunities with HoneyRock this summer.
*Some employment start/end dates are flexible, depending on the position.
Encourage your student to apply today!
Vanguard, The Gap Year of Wheaton College – Informational Webinar
Do you have a soon-to-be high school grad? Equip your son or daughter for college and life beyond and explore taking a gap year with Wheaton College.
Through Vanguard Gap Year, your student will build a vision for the future by bridging the gap between high school and college with a year unlike any other. Vanguard gives students the opportunity to be immersed in a year of hands-on education, spiritual formation, and leadership development that will prepare them for the challenges of college and beyond.
Attend a Vanguard Informational Webinar to learn more about Vanguard Gap Year!
Sign up to attend a Vanguard Informational Webinar
The 2023-24 Wheaton Athletics season continues to roll on as the fall awards season concluded recently, winter sports are headed to their conclusion and spring sports are starting up.
Athletics Update
The 2023-24 Wheaton Athletics season continues to roll on as the fall awards season concluded recently, winter sports are headed to their conclusion and spring sports are starting up.
The Thunder football team finished its 2023 campaign in December ranked as high as 12th in the Division III National rankings. Seniors Giovanni Weeks and Trevor Gabriele earned All-American and Academic All-American awards this fall.
Men’s soccer had its most wins since 2015 as Pryse Anderson and Kyle Johnson earned All-Region awards, while Steve McCrath and Mason Escalante earned special awards from the CCIW. Audrey Sexson capped her stellar Thunder women’s soccer career with an All-Region award.
Winter sports are wrapping up in the coming weeks as men’s basketball and women’s basketball conclude their season. Thunder wrestling has its conference championship event on February 15 in Elmhurst, Illinois and the Division III Regionals March 1-2 in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. The Wheaton swim teams will be in action at the CCIW Swimming Championships in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin on February 21-24. The Thunder track teams will compete in the CCIW Indoor Track & Field Championships in Naperville, Illinois on February 23-24.
Men’s tennis opened its spring season on February 3 with a victory. Women’s tennis was 8-2 in the fall and will resume its 2023-24 season with a spring schedule that begins on February 24. Both teams will travel to central Florida for the Wheaton’s spring break March 2-9. The Thunder softball team, under new head coach Amanda Fazzari, will also be in central Florida for Spring Break. The Thunder baseball team opens its 2024 season on February 23 in Birmingham, Alabama. Wheaton baseball will spend Spring Break in Tucson, Arizona.
Thunder fans can connect with Wheaton Athletics through the Wheaton Thunder app from the Wheaton Athletics Department. The app is available for free on the Apple App Store and Google Play. The app features real-time news alerts, schedules, exclusive multimedia content, gameday details and more. A key feature of the Wheaton Thunder app is notifications. Each user can sign up for notifications to receive scores, schedule changes, breaking news and stories for their favorite Thunder sports on their phone or tablet. To receive these notifications be sure to sign up for them on your first visit to the app or on the "YOU" icon at the bottom of the app.
For complete information on Wheaton’s 21 varsity athletics teams be sure to visit athletics.wheaton.edu for live broadcasts, schedules, recaps, videos and much more. Be sure to follow Thunder Sports on Facebook (facebook.com/WheatonAthletics), Twitter (@Wheaton Thunder) or Instagram (@Wheaton_Thunder).
For information on Wheaton’s club sports be sure to visit the club sports website.
How can you pray for Wheaton this month?
- that students will pursue Bible study, accountability, and mutual prayer support.
- that students who have strongholds and unhealthy patterns in their lives will find freedom.
- for wisdom for students leading Discipleship Ministries small groups.
- for President Ryken, the Senior Administrative Cabinet, Deans, faculty, and staff as they further the work of Wheaton College.
With thanks for your involvement and prayers,
The Wheaton College Parent Engagement Team
